It was another exciting day of play at the 2012 World Series of Poker, culminating with a World Champion in arguably one of the most nerve-wracking disciplines of the game crowned and a stunning comeback to hand out another WSOP bracelet.
Event #39 – $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship
The 13 men who stepped up to determine the World Champion of Pot Limit Omaha had run through the 293 player field and avoided the pitfalls of the game, which are many. Andrew Brown held a nice sized chip lead over veteran Omaha pro Sam Farha when the day began, but one of those two men would meet their demise fairly quickly.
Farha would knock out a short-stacked John Kabbaj within the first half hour of pleasantries and Brown would dismiss Adam Kornuth to bring the field down to the final eleven, but the two would separate paths from there. After limping in with three other players, Farha saw Jan-Peter Jachtmann make a pot bet off of the big blind and Farha would be the only player to come along.
On a 9-5-5 flop, Jachtmann check-called a bet from Farha and saw an eight on the turn. Another check from Jachtmann brought a big bet from Farha (600K) and this time Jachtmann moved all in. Farha made the call, tabling J-J-6-5 (trip fives with redraws), while Jachtmann revealed the leading hand (7-7-6-6, made straight with straight flush and flush redraw). When the three on the river failed to fill up Farha, he was shockingly out in eleventh place.
Jachtmann wouldn’t waste Farha’s chips, using them to take some more from Nikolai Yakovenko and Jason Mercier at the unofficial ten handed final table, to assume the chip lead. By the time that WSOP bracelet holder Ville Wahlbeck was knocked out in tenth place by Steven Silverman, however, Brown had been able to chip back up to eke out the lead over Jachtmann.
Brown and Jachtmann would be the dominant forces at the final table, swapping the lead back and forth as they whittled down their fellow combatants. Between the two, they would eliminate five of the seven men on the felt (Andy Seth’s eliminations of Joe Kushner and Jason Mercier would be the other two) and reach heads up action with Jachtmann holding slightly more than a million chip lead over Brown. It took all of ten minutes for the twosome to get the chips to the center of the table to determine a champion.
On the final hand, Brown raised the stakes to 80K and Jachtmann made the call. A 2-3-Q flop rolled onto the baize and, after a Jachtmann check, Brown moved it up to 160K to play. Jachtmann preferred the raise option, however, putting a big 640K chip bet out, which was called by Brown. On the nine turn, Jachtmann shoved over a million chips out and, after Brown moved all in, made the call.
Brown was ahead with his Q-Q-J-7 (flopped set, draws to quads/full house/flush), but Jachtmann was in good shape with his A-4-5-2 (flopped open ended straight draw with wrap, turned flush draw worse than Brown’s). When another Ace hit the river, that wrap draw came home for Jachtmann, earning him the WSOP bracelet and the $661,000 payday.
1. Jan-Peter Jachtmann (Hamburg, Germany), $661,000
2. Andrew Brown (Valatie, NY), $408,393
3. Steven Silverman (Washington, DC), $299,960
4. Micah Smith (West Palm Beach, FL), $222,044
5. Andy Seth (Las Vegas, NV), $165,665
6. Benjamin Sage (Brooklyn, NY), $124,600
7. Nikolai Yakovenko (New York, NY), $94,442
8. Jason Mercier (Davie, FL), $72,132
9. Joe Kushner (Washington, DC), $55,525
Event #40 – $2500 Six Handed Limit Hold’em
It happens to be one of the most exciting things that can occur in tournament poker. The short stack, battling for his life throughout the action, makes a stirring run to end up sitting atop the mountain when all is said and done. Event #40 of the 2012 WSOP would provide that moment of excitement for the poker aficionados inside the Amazon Room.
Starting the day, ten men had a shot at the WSOP gold, but Vincent Gironda had the best shot. In the chip lead since the start of the tournament, Gironda (550K) held approximately a 120K lead over Terrence Chan (making his eighth cash of the 2012 WSOP), while Sorel Mizzi, Joep van den Bijgaart, Brent Wheeler (oddly enough, both were at the same final table for Event #35), Chad Brown and Rep Porter presented some obstacles. Riding on the bottom rung of the ladder was Ronnie Bardah, whom everyone thought would be a quick departure on his 64K in chips.
Separating into two, five-handed tables, the men went about the task of working down to a champion on Saturday afternoon. Bardah was given the task of having to contend with Mizzi, Brown, Chan AND Gironda on his patch of felt, while van den Bijgaart, Porter and Wheeler took their seats on the second table. For the first half hour, the players were feeling out their opposition, with no real action occurring.
After that feeling out process, however, the floodgates would open and players would start leaving the Amazon Room. Bardah would get a big double through Mizzi, while Porter chopped the legs from under Marco Johnson. Over the span of two hands, van den Bijgaart would be knocked out of the tournament in tenth place while Bardah slowly began his ascent up the ladder by taking some chips from Chan and Mizzi. In fact, by the time the players had reached the final table after the elimination of Chan by Mizzi, Bardah had stormed from his short stack to sit in second behind Gironda.
After almost an hour of play at the official final table, Bardah would surpass Gironda in a big hand. On a J-10-10-K-8 board, Bardah would get three streets of value from Gironda, eventually turning up K-10 for the boat that would give him the lead. Although Gironda would attempt to fight back, another hand between the two would push Bardah over the million chip mark and he wouldn’t look back.
When heads up play was reached, Bardah was behind Marco Johnson but immediately set about righting that situation. Within ten minutes, Bardah was again in the lead over Johnson and continued to apply the pressure. After another 45 minutes, the tournament was over when Johnson committed his chips on a 5-2-2-A (two club) board holding the J-7 in clubs; Bardah rolled over his A-4 off suit and, after a sweat, the river Ace sealed the deal and a surprising short stack comeback that ended in a bracelet win for Ronnie Bardah.
1. Ronnie Bardah (Stoneham, MA), $182,088
2. Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, CA), $112,525
3. Vincent Gironda (Hoboken, NJ), $73,040
4. Brent Wheeler (St. Charles, IL), $48,828
5. Sorel Mizzi (Toronto, Ontario), $33,541
6. Hans Minocha (Overland Park, KS), $23,648
